While the NFL slowly presents their best players with their Top 100, we felt it was necessary to do the same for the New York Jets.
By Robby Sabo
While you may not actually watch the program that airs on NFL Network, you most definitely hear about the results.
Which 100 NFL players get tabbed as the best on the professional gridiron?
NFL Network’s Top 100 Players of 2016 is currently underway. It’s yet another gap-filler, allowing us to get through another day without football.
While it’s most definitely not enough to suppress our hungry NFL appetites, it does the best it can for the more generic national audience.
Around these parts, however, it simply doesn’t do the trick.
That’s why we figured player power rankings for one of our local teams were in order. Bringing you the very best active players for the New York Jets and ranking them as such was our only goal here.
And that’s exactly what we did.
No, Ryan Fitzpatrick is not included. The man isn’t on the roster.
Here are the New York Jets player power rankings for 2016 with a “Final Thoughts” page to wrap it all up with a pretty little bow at the end:
Begin Slideshow
25 through 11
25. Jace Amaro, TE
24. Jarvis Jenkins, DL
23. Steve McLendon, DT
22. Quincy Enunwa, WR
21. Lorenzo Mauldin, OLB
20. Breno Giacomini, RT
19. Marcus Williams, CB
18. Tommy Bohanon, FB
17. Darron Lee, LB
16. Nick Folk, K
15. David Harris, ILB
14. Marcus Gilchrist, FS
13. Buster Skrine, CB
12. Ryan Clady, LT
11. Leonard Williams, DE/DL
The top snubs to the Top 25 include Devin Smith, Erin Henderson, Brian Winters, and rookie Jordan Jenkins. Other rookies such as Juston Burris and Charone Peake are just too much of an unkown quality to squeeze in.
Certain lower-level positions show up in this area with Tommy Bohanon and Nick Folk. Both are terrific players at their positions. It’s just tough to justify placing a FB and/or K any higher than where they’re listed.
Jace Amaro, while he has the skill to move up tremendously, ranks near the middle of the roster until he proves he can stay on the field. The same can be said for Ryan Clady and his health concerns.
Many Jets fans will look on and point to the David Harris No. 15 spot as a grave injustice. At 33 years old, while he can still thump with the best of them in the run game, he simply won’t see the same amount of playing time moving forward. This playing time will go to rookie Darron Lee who’ll make a huge difference for the Jets on nickel and dime looks. Harris in pass coverage is simply a nightmare.
Marcus Gilchrist is a sneaky No. 14 with his brilliant center-field abilities as it Buster Skrine with his slot coverage talents.
Once 2016 is all said and done, second-year Leonard Williams will be in the top 10.
It’s interesting to note that no quarterbacks are listed on this page. Will any of them show up in the top 10? If you’re a diehard Jets fan, you already know the answer.
Now let’s get onto the big show, the top 10:
10. Bilal Powell, RB
Surprised? You shouldn’t be.
Bilal Powell was one of the more productive and valuable players on the roster in 2015.
What’s interesting about Powell is that at age 27, he looked faster than he ever has during his entire career. His burst was noticeable compared to years past. This makes him incredibly dangerous out of the backfield.
Catching 47 balls for 388 yards and two touchdowns and rushing for 313 yards and a TD (4.5 YPC), Powell’s valuable nature extends far beyond the stats. His pass protection and versatility on third-down situations proves crucial.
Where Powell often falls short is availability. Not having him in five games a season ago hurt badly. This was especially the case during the season finale in Buffalo.
Still, the way Powell looked a season ago has earned him a spot in the Top 10.
9. Eric Decker, WR
This guy is the consummate professional.
Though nobody will confuse Eric Decker with one of the best wide receivers in the game, his role as a solid No. 2 guy is worth his weight in gold.
The 29-year old wide-out went from catching passes from Peyton Manning to a very challenging situation in New Jersey. Through it all, he remained calm, cool, and went about his business very quietly.
In 2016 it paid dividends.
In Chan Gailey’s spread offense Decker hauled in 80 balls for 1,027 yards and 12 touchdowns. The only person Ryan Fitzpatrick might like staring at more than Decker in the redzone is his wife, Jessie James Decker.
Aside from that, Decker remains the apple of Fitz’s eye from the 20-yard line going in.
8. James Carpenter, OG
Perhaps the most under-the-radar steal of the 2015 offseason turned out to be New York Jets guard James Carpenter.
When all of those big deals were taking place thanks to new boss Mike Maccagnan – Darrelle Revis, Antonio Cromartie, David Harris, Brandon Marshall, etc. – it was Carpenter who provided the best bang for the buck.
A Super Bowl champion with Russell Wilson and the Seattle Seahawks, this 27-year old will remain a mainstay on the Jets line for many years to come.
If you wonder why you hear so little about him, wonder no more. It’s because he does his job with very little fuss.
7. Sheldon Richardson, DE/DL
Make no mistake about it. Although we saw Sheldon Richardson suffer through a down year in 2015, his talents as a football player cannot be questioned.
In between the lines, the guy is a flat-out stud.
Think back to his rookie season. Sheldon took home NFL AP Defensive Player of the Year honors thanks to his vicious play in Rex Ryan’s defense. This hasn’t changed. As long as he’s on the field and off the backpages for troubled reasons, Richardson will be multi-time Pro-Bowler.
Size, speed, agility – the package of Richardson suggests he’s arguably the best on the squad, but he has to figure it out off-the-field first.
6. Darrelle Revis, CB
No. Darrelle Revis is no longer the best player in Florham Park. And leave it up to the New York Jets to allow one of the best cornerbacks in NFL history to leave, win a Super Bowl with the New England Patriots, and return when he’s starting to decline.
As many would say: That is so “Jet-like.”
Did he get burned in 2015 more times than any Jets fan is accustomed to? He sure did. At the same, we, along with Todd Bowles, must realize this isn’t the same Revis. This isn’t the guy you can put on an island which automatically eliminates a third of the field thanks to greatness.
Revis is now a guy who must be a part of the gameplan, not a gameplan in itself.
At age 30 he still makes for one hell of a football player.
What’s best is his skillset fits the safety position. He’s tough, can tackle, and has an off-the-charts defensive football IQ. Don’t be surprised if you witness a Charles Woodson-like move to safety if Revis wants to play several more years.
5. Matt Forte, RB
It’s starting to become a theme. The Jets best players are near or past that magic age of 30.
Newly acquired Matt Forte is no exception.
Pairing Forte with Bilal Powell will do something for this Jets offense they haven’t possessed in a while. It’s called flexibility.
With Chris Ivory in the backfield, defenses could easily key on the run thanks to his inept ability in the passing game. Now, with Forte and Powell interchanging downs, the run or pass will always be a viable option.
Forte’s career speaks for itself. His 8,602 rushing yards and 68 rushing scores coupled with his 487 grabs for 4,116 receiving yards and 19 touchdowns through the air must be respected.
Only time will tell whether 2015 marked the first year of a decline from the two-time Pro-Bowl back.
4. Calvin Pryor, SS
The most valuable player to the New York Jets defense a season ago wasn’t Darrelle Revis. It wasn’t David Harris. It wasn’t Muhamad Wilkerson.
It was safety Calvin Pryor.
No youngster developed better for this organization in one year than Pryor did. It was easy to see why, too.
In 2014, during Pryor’s rookie season, Rex Ryan had the kid playing out of position thanks to a desperate need at the safety position. He was uncomfortably playing centerfield, trying to take the middle third of the field with less than stellar speed.
Thanks to the acquisition of Marcus Gilchrist, Pryor went back to his natural position in 2015 and dominated.
Playing a robber spot and sniffing the box, Pryor was the Jets most valuable defender. He literally flew all over the field wreaking havoc on offensive weapons.
The problem – and what made it easy to see how valuable he was – is that he missed a few games and the defense suffered greatly because of it. Bowles’s defense didn’t just struggle. They looked lost when Pyror was dressed in street clothes.
The three games Pryor missed, the Jets went 1-2 with losses to the Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills, and a narrow win against the Jacksonville Jaguars. The defense surrendered 451 yards in Oakland, 436 yards against the Jags, and 280 yards against a Rex Ryan offense who never wants to score points.
Pryor must stay on the field in 2016.
3. Brandon Marshall, WR
If James Carpenter was the most underrated signing of the 2015 offseason, then the trade that sent Brandon Marshall to the Jets was the best move.
B-Marsh didn’t just prove he wasn’t done in the NFL, he proved he still belongs among the NFL elite.
With 109 catches for 1,502 yards and 14 touchdowns, Marshall easily earned his sixth Pro-Bowl nod in 2015.
As crazy as it sounds, though, he’s much more than production from the box score.
What B-Marsh does is completely change gameplans. Whoever the quarterback is immediately has options when scanning the defense pre-snap.
If the defense is heavy towards Marshall, the other one-on-one with Eric Decker or the slot is read No. 1. If the defense plays it straight up, Marshall will win that one-on-one matchup.
What Marshall did for Jets fans in 2015, was show them what a difference maker truly is from an offensive weapon standpoint.
2. Nick Mangold, C
While Calvin Pryor was the most valuable player from a defensive standpoint in 2015, this guy, Nick Mangold, was the offensive choice.
For a franchise who’s been so hard on its luck as it pertains to obtaining a franchise quarterback, Mangold has filled the offensive leadership role for the last decade.
He’s the quarterback of the trenches. He’s the guy who calls out all the offensive line adjustments and who the youngsters look up to.
Sure, at times he’ll head off to Madison Square Garden and get yelled at by security, but that’s just who Nick Mangold is. He’s a fun-loving dude off the football field and a downright scary monster on it.
The only thing scarier is the Jets offense when Mangold is banged up and not in uniform. When that happens, that line becomes a completely different (and way below average) unit.
Mangold is one of the best New York Jets until further notice.
1. Muhammad Wilkerson, DE/DL
I’ll maintain that Calvin Pryor was the New York Jets defensive MVP in 2015. Having said that, Muhammad Wilkerson is the best player on the roster.
Save for that last disappointing loss in Orchard Park in Week 17, New York, luckily, didn’t have to experience what life is like without Big Mo on the field. He was there to participate in all 16 games.
And boy, did he deliver in 2015.
12 sacks, seven pass deflections, and 39 tackles earned Wilkerson his first Pro-Bowl nod a season ago. He did this while playing out his rookie contract that earned him far below market value.
There was no fuss, crying or pouting. Wilkerson showed everyday and did his job.
Now, the Jets have put the dreaded franchise tag on their best player. Of course, this isn’t a joyous occasion for a guy who desperately deserves a long-term deal.
In any event, Muhammad Wilkerson is the best player on the New York Jets roster.
Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
The first thing to note about the top players on the New York Jets is that none of them are spring chickens.
This a extremely veteran laced team.
From Brandon Marshall to Darrelle Revis to Nick Mangold, most of these guys are above 30 years old, a dreaded magic number in the NFL. A number many general managers fear.
Hopefully, for Mike Maccagnan’s sake, none of these guys fall off in production. They simply can’t considering the bump in schedule difficulty as opposed to 2015.
When compared against the rest of the NFL, the top players on the Jets match-up with any organization.
However, their issues are two-fold.
First and foremost, the age. But more importantly, not one of the quarterbacks on the roster fall in the top 25.
In a league that favors the quarterback position ad nauseam, this is a problem.
The best thing that can happen for the New York Jets in 2016, would be to witness a rise in development. Younger players must establish themselves and one of these young QBs (Christian Hackenberg, Bryce Petty) must make noise in some shape, way or form.